Escape
by Tribal Matriach
Summary: Why didn't we see Jack in the middle of series 9? What could he have been doing that would keep him away from a whole room full of Carters?Spoilers from Fourth Horseman, Collateral Damage and Ripple effectedited out some things 'too British'
1. Chapter 1

1.

He had done it, he had finally escaped them and now all he had to do was meet up at the rendezvous with HER!

He settled back a bit, losing himself as one amongst many, relaxed as if he was supposed to be there.

He felt the craft accelerating, the engine noise increasing, and then decreasing, he tensed a bit, but then his training kicked back in and he deliberately relaxed his body he put on a puzzled look, the same as almost everyone else.

"Ladies and Gentlemen" came the voice over the intercom system, "we apologise for this delay, but have been told to return to the terminal for the moment"

They had found him! CRAP!

He sat back in his seat, allowing others to get annoyed with the young lady who was trying to placate them, "I'm sure it's nothing at all to be worried about, it will probably be only a few minutes delay" He could see she was as puzzled by this as everyone else, but she was doing a fair job of calming the ones who were getting riled. He wasn't going to make this easy for them, if it WAS because of him, they were going to have to come get him, all the trouble he had gone to, even to flying economy, which he hated, being 6'2" he needed more leg room than the standard seats provided, booking under another name, which he could get away with as it was a domestic flight, and not even carrying a weapon, even though he had a permit, nothing he had done should have lead them to him.

Sure enough, as soon as they reached the terminal, the sky walk was fitted and the door opened and in trooped three very smart uniforms, they had a few words with the young lady, who was looking through the passenger manifest, she was shaking her head at them.

One of them pulled a photo out of a folder, and the game was up, he KNEW he shouldn't have smiled at her earlier, she recognised him straight away, and pointed to him… the uniforms marched up the aisle, straightened, saluted and the colonel in charge spoke,

"General, the president asked me to remind you that you had a meeting this afternoon sir"

BUSTED!

"Oh, was that today?" he asked and gave one of his smirks, "I could have sworn I called him and cancelled"

"Of course you did sir, that's why you are flying economy, under the name of Starsky, we have a car waiting for you, you wouldn't want to keep the President waiting would you?"

Now a lot of people through his life had underestimated the intelligence of Jack O'Neill, but no matter how dumb he was pretending to be, he was not going to fall for a stupid question like that, especially as everyone in that section of the 737 was looking at him in awe… after all the young man with the eagles on his shoulder had said the word President TWICE!

He got up and grabbed his carry-on bag, "After you, Colonel" he said, the young man walked off a couple of paces, but the other two airmen stayed put, waiting for him to fall in, between them, he gave them another of his grins and followed the Colonel off the plane, now he had to get in touch with Sam and let her know he was going to be late, and after all his promises that this time he could do it too!

They didn't just have a car, it was embarrassing, they had a damn motorcade for him!

Thirty minutes later he was back in his office at the Pentagon, with a pissed off Air Force Chief of Staff and the POTUS already waiting for him, it would have looked odd to anyone able to see the meeting as the uniform and the suit didn't seem to go with the loose fit cargo pants and overlarge shirt, of course, if anyone WAS looking, Jack would have to shoot them, it was, after all, classified.

"Jack… so nice of you to join us" Said Henry Hayes, beaming his world famous smile at the reluctant General. General Vidrine didn't look quite so happy, in fact he looked as if he was going to explode, Jack was starting to wonder about the mans blood pressure.

"Sir, General" Jack said "I seem to have mixed up some dates in my diary, sorry about that" He may as well stick with his original thought, no one was going to believe him no matter what he said, so may as well go with a big one.

Vidrine looked as if his pressure was still rising, he had no sense of humour at all, as far as Jack could tell, whereas the President was grinning fit to bust at his outright cheek. The mood turned sombre quickly though, and Hayes next sentence was nothing to smile about.

"We were thinking," the President said, "that now we have been lucky enough to find a cure for the Prior Plague what will they do next? I mean, is there is anything else they can throw at us, or do they even know we have a cure? What can we expect their next move to be? Do we have any strategy in place for dealing with whatever it will be?"

"I don't think, sir, that we can predict what they will do, and because of this we just can't be ready for it, or no more than we are already" Jack shook his head, WHY did they call him back for this? They knew everything he knew, he didn't have anything up his… sleeve… for them. In fact, if they had allowed him to escape he would have been in a better position to help if anything did go wrong as he would be with the smartest person in the world. He looked at his watch, he REALLY had to get hold of her, otherwise she would be waiting for him, and she would not be pleased if he had her standing around the airport for nothing, she may as well go on without him and he would try to catch a later flight.

"Are we keeping you from something more important General O'Neill?" Sneered Vidrine, having noticed his glance at his watch.

"As a matter of fact…"

"Jaaack" Hayes warned, he knew exactly where Jack had been headed both in his answer and on the plane, George Hammond had told him when he rang him to say that he had gone missing, but by now Jack was beyond caring about Vidrines blood pressure, and was a hairs breadth from caring about the job altogether.

"I'm sorry sir, but this is ridiculous, and you know it. You dragged me off a flight, drove me all the way here, just to tell you what you already knew. I haven't had a day off in over 3 months, and I want to spend some time away now the crisis is over"

"I can understand your feelings Jack, really, but until we find out what the knee jerk reaction of the Priors or Ori to us curing the plague is, we really don't think you should be out of touch, especially somewhere without a land line phone and 'intermittent' cell phone coverage" (the cell phone cover was fine, he just kept turning the thing off and pretending it wasn't)

"You are on active duty until you are told otherwise Major General, and don't you forget it!" Vidrine was really working himself up into a temper tantrum now, and Jack decided to go all out, if they suspended him at least he would catch up on his damn sleep, not that sleep was what he was hoping for over the next couple of days!

"If you don't mind me asking SIR," and no one could mistake that SIR as a polite address "when was the last time you saw your family? I bet it wasn't over 14 weeks ago! In fact I bet you have seen your wife in the last week, what right have you to tell me I can't have a damn day off or two when I am not on the front lines and am flying a bloody desk!"

"It would be different if you were married… but you don't have a…"

"That's not quite accurate" Hayes stepped in. Vidrine looked at him, puzzled.

"Sir? I was reviewing O'Neills file on the way over, he has been divorced for 11 years now"

"Not EVERYTHING is in the file, some things are deliberately kept out to minimise risks, if someone, like Ba'al were to gain access to personnel files then he would have a target to aim for who is slightly easier to get to than Jack is, and we decided that it was safer if it wasn't 'known'"

"You are MARRIED?" He looked at Jack, unbelievingly, as if to say 'who the hell would put up with YOU?'

"Yes, sir, I am, have been for almost 6 months, and may I say that I have not seen my wife for just over 14 weeks and I am getting tired of it"

"Why that long? She isn't living with you here in DC?"

"No sir, my wife lives in my old house in the Springs, to be closer to her job" He was NOT going to tell Vidrine his wife's name if he could possibly help it, not only did he not like the man much, he didn't trust him to keep it to himself, and just a hint into the wrong ears could lead to her being in danger

There was a pause, while the CoS sorted his thoughts out. He knew he had been responsible for Jack being dragged back, the President had been happy to wait until he had got it out of his system and came back on his own, he knew that it would only be a couple of days, after all Jack did have a very well defined sense of duty, more than most people, even most in the armed services.

"I suppose that we could get you another flight out to St. Paul International tonight" he said, and then playing a hunch added "We can call in Lt. Col. Carter to brief us on what she thinks the reaction of the priors will be, and have her on hand while you are gone"

He noticed the look exchanged between Jack and his boss, and smiled to himself, he didn't need to ask who Mrs. O'Neill was, he had just been told. Jack took a deep breath and looked straight at him, and realised he had been played, he gave a sheepish grin.

"Yeah, she may be out of touch for a couple of days as well, but we promise to leave our phones on this time!"

"With your permission, sir" Vidrine gestured to his phone and raised his eyebrows at the President, at his nod he pressed his speed dial to his aide "Get me the Prometheus and see if they can transport General O'Neill to Minnesota this afternoon"

All the time this had been going on, Sam had actually already left home, having a lot further to go than Jack did. She worried slightly about leaving things so soon after the whole world had been on edge, but she HAD to get away for a bit and she really felt the need to touch Jack and make sure he was OK. She knew he had not caught the plague, but it did not stop her worrying about him, especially as he was in a city, the ideal place for this type of thing to spread.

She was exhausted, again, as she had once again not only worked through the night, but through several nights in a row. She had only slept when she had been caught by Daniel drooling on her keyboard, and that in itself told how tired she was as the machine was beeping at her and she couldn't hear it!

She managed to get a hop from Peterson to St. Paul, rather than take the commercial flight that she had intended, she didn't want to spend time in the public side of the airport if she could help it, apart from the crowds and noise, she would have to almost literally fight off all the chancers who thought she was alone, she loved Jack enormously, but was a bit sceptical about him managing to get away as early as he said he could. He was always the optimist, never admitting that Plan A couldn't work until Plan B was well under way. Plan B was her grabbing a cot until he turned up to drive for her, she really didn't want to have to drive herself, not with this level of fatigue.

She knew that he was supposed to be having a meeting with the President some time today, she also knew that as he was one of the few people who attended the wedding, she could count on Hayes to give Jack some slack unless it was urgent, however she didn't know who else would be involved in the meeting, and any one, or more of several people that Jack had rubbed the wrong way over the years could be involved and if they got a hint he wanted to be away they could drag it out well past the normal working day, just to be awkward.

She managed to charm her way into a cot that was set aside for pilots who had done their hours, put her bag on the floor by the side of her and nodded off to the sound of plane engines.

Several hours later she woke up and the first thing she noticed was the silence! A busy international airport like St. Pauls was never quiet; she also could feel that the narrow cot she had gone to sleep in had somehow turned into a double bed, or maybe even bigger, with satin bedclothes. Trying not to give away the fact that she was conscious, she slowly stretched out trying to get to a position that would be easy to spring out of bed, and heard a low chuckle.

"I can tell when you're awake you know" she heard her husband say.

Her eyes snapped open, to see the ceiling of the master bedroom in the cabin. "What…? Er…how?" she shook her head, trying to get the thoughts in some sort of order so she could make a proper sentence "I'm sure I went to sleep somewhere else, and alone" she said

"You were transported by the Prometheus, never even twitched from one end to the other" he explained

"Jack! You never used the matter transporter just for personal use! Do you realise how much energy those beams use?" She started to work it out in her head, how to put it in terms he would understand.

"Relax, I didn't do it, Vidrine did, as an apology for making me work for months without a conjugal visit" he noticed her sceptical look at the name of the CoS that arranged it "yeah I was shocked too, looks like the man may not have a sense of humour, but he may just have a heart"

He got up and stretched, showing off the long lean body that she had been lusting after for years, he was only wearing a pair of shorts and sandals, his usual attire for the cabin in summer, unless they had visitors, where he would add a loose shirt. "Want something to eat?" he asked

"That depends what is on the menu" she said, slowly looking him up and down and licking her lips, he groaned, and immediately she could see where his thoughts had headed as the shorts became tighter.

"NO! Food I mean, I bet with everything that has been happening you haven't had a proper meal in ages, never mind a full nights sleep" he walked to the bedroom door, and turned "I'm not ruling out dessert though so long as you eat all the main course" he adjusted himself to a more comfortable position as he stepped through into the hallway "You have time for a bath if you want one, or you can lie on the sofa with a book if not, it'll be about 40 mins"

She seriously considered going back to sleep if she couldn't 'eat' Jack straight away, but knew if she did she would have trouble waking up again to eat the dinner he was making, and even though he had probably put in as many hours as she had, he always treated her as if she had the harder job. She had her usual 3 minute shower and went into the kitchen to help him prepare the meal. There was no sign of anything cooking, or even anything being got ready to cook, and even more puzzling, no sign of Jack.

She slipped her sandals on and stepped out the back to see if he was at the grill, but he wasn't there either, she heard a reel spinning and went around to the dock, to see him casting into the pond as if there was nothing else to do.

"Jack? I thought we were going to make dinner?"

"Nope. Part of the whole "I'm sorry" package from Vidrine includes them sending us meals and everything we need, just for the 48 hours that they are in orbit, if we can manage to stay longer than that we have to cope by ourselves."

He leaned back to kiss her as she sat down, just then his phone rang, "Crap!" he looked at the display and with a grimace flipped it open "O'Neill!" His eyes narrowed "Who? …Yes…trace? …send someone r… OK…thanks… out" He put the phone back in his pocket with a frown, but made no other move.

"You have to go back?" she whispered "how soon?"

"No, nothing that serious, just a slight breech in security, they are dealing with it but thought I should be kept in the loop" His mind was racing, but he knew that Sam knew him well enough to almost read his mind, and he didn't want her to this time.

"You going to get that bath? Need help scrubbing your back?" He leered at her suggestively raising his eyebrows.

Sam wasn't sure if she should let it go, she knew he had changed the subject deliberately, especially as he had turned her suggestion down earlier, but she also knew that there could be several reasons why he couldn't tell her what the call was actually about, and several why he _wouldn't_. She just didn't know which category it fell into, and having been parted for so very long she didn't want to spoil what time they had by trying to get him to tell. "Sure, I could definitely do with some help with those hard-to-reach places." She smoothed her hand down his arm until she got to his, and entwined their fingers while giving him a pull to his feet.

Half an hour later they sat down to a candle lit meal that could have come from a top DC restaurant. Everything had been done to perfection and was exactly the correct temperature when it arrived. The wine was rich and full bodied and with the fire burning in the hearth not five feet away the whole place seemed designed for seduction. The only thing that marred the whole evening was the couple of times she had glanced up and caught a blank expression on his face, the one put on when he needed to hide emotions and thoughts from her, each time it was fleeting, but the fact that it happened more than once made her think that whatever the call was about, it was more serious than he made out.

Jack stood and went into the corner to the music centre and put on a CD of love songs, walked back and offered her his hand "Dance with me?" she nodded and stood, melting into his embrace, it wasn't often that he danced, though she loved to, and she knew it was part of the effort to make her forget earlier, of course, it made her even more curious.

"Jack… what is it?"

"If you don't know by now what that is…" he started

She punched him lightly on the arm "Stop it! You know what I'm talking about, and it isn't THAT!" she rubbed her hip into his groin, smirking when he groaned and put his head on her shoulder.

"Let's forget it for tonight love, please, it isn't that important, let's just make love and forget the rest of the world exists, just for tonight"

She couldn't for the life of her think of any objection to that, not that she really tried…


	2. Chapter 2

2.

Next morning they were both awake by 0600 even though they had not set the alarm, they turned to each other and made love slowly, with a long burning passion rather than the explosive type they had made the night before. This type of togetherness meant more to them, it made their time together seem infinite, Sam rose first afterwards and went to the shower while Jack went into the kitchen and turned on the coffee machine, there was a box with fresh baked bagels and butter, a cereal box and a carton of milk, on the counter top next to the sink unit. He set the table as he heard Sam shout that the shower was free, he went in and got himself ready for the day.

After breakfast he suggested a slow walk through the forest surrounding the cabin, to town to pick up items that they were running short of. If their origional plans had worked out, they would have picked this stuff up on their way in from the airport, but as they had "beamed" in they had no transport.

Jack was well known in town, in fact a lot of the folk there had known his parents, and his grandparents too, they also had known Sarah and Charlie and more than a few of them were thrilled when he eventually turned up with a woman after all the years he had been alone.

They bought their things at the shop, and asked Dave, the owner and some times fishing pal of Jacks, if he would deliver them to the cabin, making the excuse that they had got a lift from a friend. Dave offered to give them both a lift back 'home' when they wanted, they thanked him and wandered off around the town for a while, catching up on any news, and eating a light lunch at the diner.

It was while they were sitting in the back of Daves delivery van that Jacks phone rang again. Once again he looked at the display before opening it "Daniel" he said, lifting his eyebrows at Sam.

"Hello Danny, what's up? …Yeah she's with me" he covered the mouthpiece up "You left your phone at the cabin?"

She patted her pockets, and nodded, she was that used to them actually turning their phones off when they came up here that she had honestly forgotten all about it, something which pleased Jack no end, as it meant that she really did relax in their home-away-from-home.

"Yes Daniel, no she just forgot to pick it up, we've been out all morning…yes… WHAT?"

He sat up ramrod straight! "What did the police say? Get our people onto it, no I know you can't, you go get it organised and I'll phone Landry and get him to order it… no no real 'warning' as such, my office told me yesterday about the…" he looked at Sam as if figuring out what to say "unauthorised access to her records, they were running a trace on it, make sure that Landry makes sure that the locals know WE want the forensics, and you personally go around and thank the neighbours and reassure the tenant that everything is being done, get a new alarm system fitted for them… Yeah, I'll tell her… thanks for letting me know so quick Daniel, I'll phone you later this afternoon… bye!"

"Trouble?" said Dave

"Yeah," said Jack "Someone broke into a friends house last night, while they were out"

He looked at Sam sending her one of their silent communications to let her know he wasn't going to say anything more until they were on their own.

An hour later they had packed all the shopping away and given Dave a cup of coffee as a thank you, and finally waved him off, Jack put his arm around her waist and led her to the sofa, easing her down beside him.

"The phone call yesterday was from Sergeant Michaels, saying that the flag had gone off on the SGC personnel files, someone was doing a background check on a member, they got through the first level of encryption but they were blocked on the second level, and an automated trace was made by your programme that brought up an IP address in the Hoover Building. They phoned me to let me know what was happening and I am expecting a call back once they have found out who was trying to get in."

Sam nodded her head as he was telling her all this, General Hammond had made her write a multi layered file encryption several years ago, she had no idea what had prompted him to ask for it, but she knew it would take even a top level hacker, some time to get to any useful information, enough time that they would have people outside waiting for them by the time they got through, the system was even better than the one the NID had set up years before, that had almost got Maybourne and Jack caught.

"Daniels call was to say Mrs Featherstone had rung the police last night to say someone was hanging around your old house in a suspicious manner, when the cops got there they found the door had been jemmied but no sign of anything else, luckily SF. Friar was on the graveyard shift."

When Sam had moved into Jacks house, she had kept on her old place, just for show, as a part of the security measures, and rented it out to the people who were short term deployed at the SGC or NORAD, usually security people from the upper levels, not people down on level 28, who tended to be more permanent. Mrs Featherstone was a sweet old lady, with nothing better to do all day than watch everyone who passed her window, she was better than a guard dog, and they had found out very early in their relationship, that you could not keep anything from her!

She also never gossiped, she just enjoyed letting you know that she knew.

"When you were making Dave the coffee I slipped to the bathroom and phoned Hank, getting Daniel the backup he needed, the trouble is, the file they were after was yours, again" He winced… damn he hadn't meant to let that slip!

"Again?!" Her head shot up "When has it happened before?"

"It's happened a couple of times, over the last 3 or so years, we know who it was the first time and we warned him off, that's when Hammond put you into making the new security software, then, about 8 or 9 months ago it happened again, but this time it was in a cyber café and they got nowhere near the files, they were just stupid enough to leave behind a piece of paper with your name on it under the keyboard. The description of the user was of a man in his late 20's with black hair and middle eastern complexion, but there were no prints or anything else that we could use, then there was last nights, and this one may be the same as the first one, as that intrusion was from the FBI too"

"The FBI? Why would someone at the FBI be looking at me? I don't even have a parking ticket!"

"It wasn't him that wanted the information, it was a favour for a friend. We warned him about doing favours like that, and let him know that if he tried it again there would be disciplinary proceedings, now whether or not it is him again, and if he has the same motive, or if it was the same 'friend' using a different contact, we don't know yet, but we will. Now I'm just going to phone Michaels and see what he's got. Then we can talk some more if you need to"

Jack went and stood outside on the porch, he could pace there while talking, and Sam knew that anything to do with her would fill him with nervous energy, so he needed to pace, it wasn't that he didn't want her to hear the call, in fact when she brought him a coffee he put his arm around her instead of taking it, while he carried on the conversation.

"…Yeah, so can you find his whereabouts last night? See if he was supposed to be on duty, and if so did he turn up? Have you given the FBI man the usual warning? Try her brother if you can't trace him, Mark Carter, his address and number is in her file, he may know where he is." Sam stiffened, she suddenly realised who it was Jack was trying to find "I'd like a word or two with him myself if possible, and I think Sam will too. No I don't think he's dangerous, remember no one knows we got married, I have a feeling he could just be trying to get in touch with her… yeah well if the forensics at the house turn anything up then that's different, in that case I _Definitely_ want a word, in a room without cameras" The grin on Jacks face now was not a pleasant one, a shiver ran down her spine.

Sam Carter was a 'modern' woman, she was not the type who expected favours because of her sex, she didn't want to be treated like china, nor as if she was a piece of property, however the possessive look on Jacks face at the back end of that conversation sent a shaft of lust straight through her, she knew that Jack could always be classed as an Alpha Male, but this was the first time he had openly had the look "MINE!!Don't touch!" on his face. The way he tightened his arm around her and looked straight at her while talking to Michaels so far away, was letting her know that he _WAS_ going to protect her, whether she wanted him to or not!

After breaking up with Pete due to him being a bit of a control freak, she would have expected this sort of behaviour to set off alarm bells in her head, but it didn't, the only sound she could hear was the sound of her breathing getting short as she flushed red. She turned and put the coffee cups on the window sill, then stood as close as physically possible to Jack, with one hand holding him close and the other cupping his rapidly hardening erection. His eyes dilated and he decided that his aide could cope with everything else, with a quick "I'll call you again at 1800 before you go home" he put the phone down and drew her up tight, growling into her shoulder he thrust against her, and said "Bedroom, NOW!"

"I was thinking more like, here and now" she said, unfastening her shorts.

Jack growled again and pushed her back into the wall of the cabin.

At exactly 2 seconds before 1800 Sgt. Michaels phone rang, he had some bad news for his boss, and if there was anything he hated it was giving this General bad news. Of all the people Michaels had worked for Jack O'Neill was by far the best, he could be bad tempered, moody, childish, funny and above all, he could be all of them in less than a 5 minute window! But he was 100 behind any of his people, even those he didn't know personally, and when he had found out that Michaels wife was ill, even though he had no days left to take, Jack had sent him home and covered for him! A 2 star General had covered for a Sergeant! And not just for a couple of days either, Jack had covered for 2 whole weeks, and would not take a single word in thanks once Michaels got back.

While Michaels had been off, Jack, who insisted he knew nothing about computers, had rearranged the filing system, put a couple of levels more encryption on, written a programme to recognise certain Goa'uld words if they came through from Daniel (the linguist sometimes forgot to translate as he was thinking in the language he was reading) to alert him straight away and another for Ancient. He also stopped the automatic translation of documents coming from the Russian and Chinese members of the oversight committee, though he still translated the French ones. All in all, this had to be the strangest General in the whole of the USAF, and Michaels was delighted to be his aide!

"General O'Neills office" he said into the phone, even though he knew exactly who it was on the line.

"Michaels." It wasn't a question, nor even a statement, he wasn't asking for anything, and yet he wanted everything, quick.

"Sir, Special Agent Dan Ferretty was transferred to Salt Lake City 14 months ago, and he was on a stake out over there, with witnesses when the search happened here in DC.

The machine the search was performed on is not actually any one persons, it's like a spare desk that people can use if theirs is being repaired or something.

"Even though they are supposed to, not everyone remembers to log-out when they leave, we know because someone was logged in when we got there that had been out of the office for 3 hours. So we cannot say for certain who it was. Sorry Sir"

He heard Jack take a deep breath "OK, anything from the SGC? Or from Denver PD?"

"We haven't heard from the SCG as yet sir, but Denver PD say that Detective Shanahan left their employ a few months ago after a charge of harassment was made against him by his girl friend. He wasn't violent, but he was doing background checks on her, her family and her workmates, and he missed meetings with contacts a couple of times because he was following her when she had said she was going out with the girls from work.

I spoke to the young lady herself, and she has a court injunction against him, prohibiting him from coming within 100 yards of her, or half a mile of her home or work, he pushed the injunction a couple of times, but she hasn't seen him for almost 3 weeks now.

"I got in touch with Mark Carter, sir, and he seemed to be under the impression that your wife and you were separated and that she had got in touch with Shanahan for help, he seems very anti- AF sir, if you don't mind me saying so, he said he was not surprised you were having problems, and when I told him you weren't and that you were away together at this moment I could not really convince him that I was telling the truth, he asked me to ask Mrs. O'Neill to contact him personally if she wanted any more information."

Michaels heard Jack sigh, he didn't sound surprised at Marks attitude. "Is there anything else you can think of that I can do to help, sir?"

"Not tonight Michaels, thanks for all you have done so far, I'll get in touch with the SGC and get Sam to phone her brother, I'll be in touch around 1000 tomorrow, unless something urgent comes up in the mean time, now go home and see your wife and kids!"

"Thank you sir! You have my cell number sir, if you think of anything, please don't hesitate."

"Goodnight Michaels, thanks, talk to you tomorrow"

The phone went down, now Michaels just had to phone the President and let HIM know what was happening, and then he would go home. He hated the fact that he had not told Jack that he had been ordered to report direct, but if anyone could help his boss, the President of the United States was that man!


	3. Chapter 3

3.

Jack went into the cabin, Sam was leant back on the sofa, listening to Madam Butterfly, the look on her face made Jack stop dead. She was totally relaxed, had a slight smile at the corners of her mouth, that he longed to kiss, her eyes were closed and the fire light made the hair resting against the sofa back look like it was moving under its own power, she looked angelic! No wonder that almost every man she met fell in love with her! No wonder that Shanahan was finding it hard to let go. If the man was that possessive of an "ordinary" woman, God alone knew what lengths he would go to for this one!

"Sam…love… can you call Mark please, you can guess how he reacted when Michaels told him who he was. He seems to have some strange ideas, and I could do with knowing what he knows." She had opened her eyes as soon as he started speaking, by the time he finished she was looking puzzled

"What do you mean strange ideas? And what could he know that you need to?"

"Please, love, just phone him, tell him what we are doing" he wiggled his eyebrows at her and smirked "not ALL the details, just that we are getting away for a few days, and ask him if he knows where Pete is"

"I have to get hold of Hank and Daniel, see what's happening back in the Springs"

"Ok," she said and got up to find her handbag, which had her cell phone in. She brought it back into the living room and sat on the sofa, watching as Jack dialled the SGC and walked back out the door, leaving it open behind him, so they could each hear the other if they wanted to.

"Hiya Ellen, is our Mark in please?" Sam said as her sister-in-law answered the phone, she could hear the kids in the background arguing over something, but they were laughing as they were doing it and it made Sam smile to herself

"Sam! What the hell is the Airforce doing calling me about Pete?" Came the angry voice of her brother down the line, wiping the smile off her face straight away.

"We have a bit of a problem Mark, that's all, someone broke into my old house last night"

"And you thought it was Pete!!? For Christ's sake Sam! You're dating the guy! Why would he break in!?"

"I'm not dating Pete, Mark, I'm married to Jack, happily married"

"Pete rang here a couple of weeks ago, he told me he had had a short message from you that that bastard of a General of yours had hit you and he was going to pick you up, but you were so upset that you forgot to let him know where you were living, I told him that as far as I knew you were still at the same place, even though you had married Jack, thinking about it, Pete seem shocked at that actually!" he paused a second, then said "I even offered to come with him, but he said he could handle it, I tried calling the house but the number must have changed, I thought you had done it to stop HIM phoning you"

"Mark, Jack would NEVER hit me! And if I was in trouble with anyone I would call my team, not an ex boyfriend from 2 years ago! How could you think I would be weak enough to shout for help like that? I'm a Colonel in the Airforce for Gods sake!"

"Yeah and that man you married is a General and from what I gather from dad he used to be in Black Ops, not even you would be able to hold your own against him Sam" he had a point there, if Jack ever got angry enough to really use his training, even Teal'c would have a problem, never mind someone only 2/3 his weight.

"Anyway, Jack and I are happy, and at the moment are having a mid-week dirty-weekend away, it's hard enough managing 2 days together so we take what we can where we can"

"Where?"

"Oh, a little place in the back of beyond that Jack discovered a while ago" she didn't know why she wasn't telling him the truth, not too many people knew about the cabin, but it wasn't a secret either, and the last thing she wanted was their idyllic refuge tainted by Pete turning up! "Very romantic actually" she couldn't help a contented sigh coming out at the thought, this more than anything seemed to convince Mark that everything was fine with their marriage.

"Oh Sam, I'm so sorry, if I had known what would happen I would never have introduced him to you"

"You weren't to know Mark. So, where is he, do you think? Do you have a recent cell number for him? We can trace him through the tower network. I'm going to give you a phone number for a member of my team, if he gets in touch again, call Daniel and let him know, don't make him suspicious but try to find out where he is etcetera" She recited Daniels cell number, wrote down the number Pete had given Mark, and wishing him, Ellen and the kids the best, put the phone down and tried to hear if Jack had finished.

Jack had rung Daniel first, only to find him in Hanks office, so he rang Hanks number straight away so it could go on speaker phone

"So kids, what do we know?"

"No prints at the scene, no tool marks, no footprints, no clues, sorry Jack" Said Daniel

"SF Friar reports that nothing has been disturbed in the house, and there is nothing missing as far as he can tell" Teal'c reported.

"We haven't found any sign of Shanahan in the area, his credit cards and bank account show no transactions for the last 2 weeks, so how he is living I don't know, said Hank. "He didn't make any large withdrawals before dropping off the grid either, so it doesn't look as if he planned it in advance"

"There is a report of someone near your house last night Jack, but no sign of a break in or anyone there when the police get there, just the neighbours dog going wild."

Jacks neighbour an ex-gunny trained guard dogs since leaving the corps, it wasn't as if they would bark like mad at a rabbit or anything, if they were warning of someone around, then someone was around. Of course if it WAS Shanahan, Sam was away before he started prowling about, he may not realise she was living there. Jack had a thought and was just about to mention it when Teal'c said it for him

"O'Neill would it not be wise for myself to stay in the house until your holiday ends? That way if Shanahan does decide to pay a visit, we will be warned early, and maybe I could persuade him not to do it again" the way Teal'c put no inflection at all on the word 'persuade' made Jack smile, especially as he knew the Jaffa's way of persuasion was more likely to work than other peoples forms of torture! "I would, of course, detain him as well, so that you may have a chance of facing him"

"Hold on guys…" Jack could hear Sam shouting at her brother, something about i _him hitting her!! /i _"Looks like Pete told Mark that I was hitting Sam, she's setting him straight right now! T, wonderful idea, I was about to suggest something like that, especially as he has seen the surveillance van, so we can't use that. Daniel, you can use the guest bedroom if you want to stay as well, Prometheus is in orbit for the next 24 or so, we could get you beamed in if you want, that way he won't be expecting anyone to be there, and I can call Derek and ask him to take the dogs inside for the night, make it more tempting, or even, if I can, ask him to take them off, as if to a show."

"Jack, if you want I can offer to put him up for a day or so somewhere, with the dogs, so it looks like he is at a show, he seemed a nice enough fellow when we met at the barbeque at your house last summer, I can always say it's to do with your job, he knows it's classified"

"I'll call him first Hank, then you can call him with the details, if we can get him out of the house first thing tomorrow, and we make sure we stay here another day, it should enable us to spring the trap…" He turned his head as he heard Sam coming out of the cabin, she gave him a slip of paper "Hank, here's Pete's cell number, get hold of the cell phone people and get a triangulation on it" He read it out, and then heard Hank shouting for Walter, explaining what he wanted.

"Ok people, I think that's all we can do for today, I'll call at 0730 tomorrow that's half an hour before I check in with Michaels. If this goes on much longer I'm going to start using Zulu time again, saves me working out the differences." He heard a chuckle in the background, had to be Hank, T wouldn't understand it and Daniel never did get the whole Zulu time thing, so he would still have to translate it for him if he went to UTC. "Ok goodnight folks, or afternoon as it is there. Time for me to feed this beautiful blonde dinner…" he was just about to hang up when he heard Walter come back into the room

"Sir! Report from the cell phone company, the phone was turned off about 30 minutes ago, its last location was somewhere on Cheyenne mountain. They report it has been in this area for at least 40 hours, before that it was in Denver, and it seems unusual for it to be turned off."

"Shit!" said Jack, Sam looked at him anxiously "He knows we have his number, he will dump the phone now and buy a disposable one"

"How can he know?" asked Daniel

"I guess that either Mark told him, or he has Marks phone bugged"

"Couldn't it be an insider at the phone company?"

"They wouldn't know we wanted to locate him 15 minutes before we asked them to, no the only place it could have leaked from in that time is Carters Brother" he shrugged at her in apology, she grimaced, glad now at what ever instinct made her not tell Mark where they were. "Walter, get hold of all cell phone companies and tell them under NO circumstances to allow a location on either Sams phone or mine, not even a court order, unless they check with the President first, I'll phone Henrys lead secret service man and get him to back me up with another call. I know that by now SOMEONE will be reporting to Hayes all about this" he sighed, when did his life become so complicated? And so important that he could call in favours like this without thinking about it? "Ok once again folks, I'll call you tomorrow, good night"

Variations on "goodnight" came down the phone line as he hung up. Sam told Jack about what she had told Mark, and that if it was a tap he should be expecting her home either tomorrow or the next day, they couldn't count on it if it was Mark repeating it to Pete though, everything in her was hoping it was the former, she didn't know what Jack would do to Mark if he had deliberately told Pete, he had been against the wedding to start with, and if he put her in what Jack viewed as danger, she wasn't sure she could stop him!

"Oh Sam," he hugged her close "why don't we ever get a break? I'm so, so sorry love" She pulled back a little in surprise, what had he got to be sorry for? It was HER ex that was causing the problems. She looked at him and saw the bone deep weariness that was showing on his face for the first time since he moved to DC.

"Hush love," she whispered "none of this is your fault, if anyone is to blame here it's me, I was the one who got engaged to a man I loved but wasn't in love with, I let it go too far, I broke his heart"

"No! It isn't your fault, you gave me a chance to stop you getting engaged, I was just too much of a coward to take it. None of that would have happened if I had just spoken up. He should never have had the chance of dating you, never mind getting engaged, I should have retired, or moved from SG1, or moved you to '51 earlier so we could have got together sooner, I could have moved you back as soon as you got insane enough over there to actually say 'Yes'." She put her hand on his cheek; once again he was telling her he didn't think he was good enough for her. She had threatened him with no sex for a year last time, so he had stopped saying it direct, not that she could have lasted a year, God if they were together she couldn't last a couple of hours! Now the thought was in her head, an early night didn't seem like a bad idea, she moved inside, taking Jack with her, shutting the door with a push as soon as he cleared it. Then, without breaking her almost full body contact with him, she slowly moved to the rear of the room, kissing him and nipping his neck and shoulders every step of the way.

"Wait Sam." Jack reluctantly stopped and pulled out of her embrace, "I have to call Derek, and ask him to take the dogs away tomorrow night" She hadn't heard all the plan as yet, but decided she could put enough together to work out what was happening. Jack checked his watch, 2045, still time to catch Derek before he took the dogs out for their evening exercise, he left at 2000 Springs time every day for a full 2 hours through the woods, he found Derek's number in the cells phone book and rang him up.

"Derek! Hear your boys got a bit loud last night, catch anyone?"

"Damn Jack, you must have good hearing to hear them barking all the way up in DC, I know the air is thin up there, but I didn't realise sound travelled THAT far" Jack grinned at that response, he knew that as a rule Derek didn't like officers, he seemed to think that they always sat safe behind their desks while the NCOs and 'grunts' did all the dirty work, but after years of seeing Jack, and his team, come back in all sorts of conditions, he extended the respect that jarheads tended only to give their own kind. "Anyway, aye the boys heard someone creeping about your house in the early hours, late first, early middle watch" Jack worked it out to being somewhere around midnight. "I couldn't see anyone, so I let Pup out, but whoever it was must have already scarpered 'cos he came back quickly" 'Pup' was Dereks first dog, given to him as a present when he retired from the corps, the one who all the others he trained and sold were fathered by, and at the grand old age of 14 was still as fit as ever and could look almost as mean as Teal'c!

"Need a favour off you Derek, and it's a biggie" Jack said

"What you need?"

"I need you and the boys to bugger off for a day or so, Hank Landry, you remember him?" he paused for agreement from his friend "He can arrange somewhere for you all to stay, probably just one day, but maybe a couple if that's ok by you?"

"You want me to leave? Why would you want that Jack? Especially as there could be someone about that's up to no good!" Jack could almost hear the wheels turning in Dereks head.

"We think that there may be someone up to no good hanging around, you're right there! But I'm stuck in DC, and I don't want to put Sam at risk, so she's here with me for a couple of days and we've laid a trap for whoever it is, we didn't expect your boys to start scaring him off! Sam only has a couple more days leave and then she will have to come back to the Springs, I'd like him behind bars before then, if possible." Ok so it wasn't the whole truth, but it was very VERY close, in fact much closer than he would have told many people.

Derek didn't take long thinking about it, he liked Sam, and more he respected her. He knew she was very clever, a doctor in some fancy space subject, but he had also seen her with bruises and slings, crutches and bandages, and she single handedly changed the 'old soldier' into the pro camp for women on the front lines. However he was still old fashioned enough to agree with Jack on wanting to keep his woman safe.

He also had nothing spoiling if he dropped everything and took a holiday, both he and his wife, Michelle worked with the dogs, his kids had families of their own and lived not too far away. He told Jack that there wasn't a problem, and that he would leave either as soon as Hank phoned, or first thing in the morning if it was tonight, it was a bit late to be packing up just now.

Jack agreed, anyway Teal'c wouldn't be in place until tomorrow, so if the boys could keep Pete away tonight, then he would be thinking that Sam was in the house, all T and Daniel had to do was make sure they weren't seen, and keep from between the windows and the light source once it got dark.

Jack had just one more call to make, and rather than call the secret service man that he was originally intending to, he decided to go straight to 'THE MAN' . Not surprisingly, the secretary put him through and the president seemed to be almost as up-to-date on the situation as Jack was himself, only bits with Mark Carter and the latest from Derek needed to be told, and he got the assurance he needed about the cell phone searches, having spoken to Hank not half an hour ago and put it all into motion.

"Now Jack, go get back to your wife and leave everything to us, you are supposed to be resting up, you're no good to us if you come back even crankier than when you left!" He heard the throaty chuckle come down the line, and was almost tempted to tell the POTUS not to giggle!

"Thank you once again, Sir" he said with feeling and put the phone down.

He turned around to find Sam just as he heard another beeping calling him, it wasn't his phone this time, he moved towards the bedroom, but the beep got fainter, and he realised what it was. He moved to the kitchen, where he had last used the communicator, and there it was, he picked it up "O'Neill"

"Prometheus here Sir, are you ready for your dinner to be transported?" Oh damn he had forgotten, "Give us 15 mins, and can I speak to the Captain please?"

"Colonel Pendergast here"

"O'Neill here, listen I don't know what your deployment orders are concerning the next few days, but I want you available at 1400 Zulu tomorrow for a transport of one or two people, point to point on earth, can you do that?" If not they could always try using the Sodon warrior cloaking devices, it just made it a bit harder to manage.

"Yes Sir, we have had our departure deferred for 72 hours to be on hand for transporting people and things for you, on order of the Joint Chiefs and President Hayes himself!"

To say Jack was shocked would be an understatement, but the more he thought about it, the more he realised that they couldn't risk losing Sam, it made sense to throw everything in the path of someone willing to harm her.

"Ok Colonel, I'll be in touch tomorrow, with details"

"Enjoy your dinner sir Pendergast out!"

Jack wasn't sure if he actually heard the slightly put out note in the Colonels voice, or if he imagined it, but if he did, he could hardly blame him, as far as Pendergast probably knew he was in orbit just to cater to the Generals appetite because he couldn't be bothered to cook for himself. Fine use of the tax payers dollars that was! NOT!

"Sam!" he shouted "Dinner in just over 10 minutes love!" no answer. Jack put down the communications stone, and his cell into his shorts pocket, and headed towards the master bedroom. Sam was stretched out on the bed, face down, taking the whole width of it. He was tempted to leave her, but she hadn't eaten since lunch, and the way she was laid, fully dressed, he could see that her shorts, which were usually skin tight (GOD he loved those shorts!) had an inch or so of extra material at the back. She needed food as much as she needed rest.

He sat beside her, and put the palm of his hand on the strip of skin visible between the top of the shorts and the bottom of her tank top, he stared a gentle rubbing in a circular motion "Saaammm…" he cooed "wake up love… Saaamm" she was totally out of it. It wasn't often that either of them slept this deep, he moved his hand from side to side now, pressing on a bit harder so he was actually shaking her gently "Sam," a bit louder, and still no response, he snickered "AIRMAN!" She jumped up off the bed straight away, almost knocking him off

"Yessir!" she was almost into a full salute when she realised who it was shouting her, and where she was. "JACK! I was just laid waiting for you, I wasn't aslee…" she stopped talking, she actually had been asleep, otherwise he wouldn't have shouted like that. "Sorry honey, I guess I'm a bit more tired than I thought"

"S'Ok, dinner will be here in about 5 mins, want to go splash some water on your face? Wake up a bit more?" he saw her look back at the bed, "I know you're tired love, but you have to eat, and then if you want we can either sit and listen to some music in front of the fire, or come straight to bed, to sleep. It looks like we have at least another couple of days here, and the ship is staying in orbit, so if you don't want to, we don't have to leave the cabin again until we head home."

"Ok, I'll go refresh myself, what's on the menu tonight?"

"Actually I don't know, but as they got last night spot on, I'm hoping for something good." 

Once again the meal was perfect, the accompanying wine spot on and everything was even more relaxed than yesterday, as this time there were no secrets and nothing would happen until the next day anyway. They spent a couple of hours on the sofa, just listening to music and laying next to each other, comfortable in the silence between them, and then they went to bed. They didn't make love this time, just continued to hold each other, as they had been since the end of dinner, until they slipped into sleep together.

This time Jack got up alone, slipping out of bed and heading for the kitchen to have a quick wash, so he didn't wake Sam up, he brushed his teeth and had a very awkward shave in the kitchen sink, and opened the box of fresh bagels and took a couple out. He made a single cup of instant coffee and quietly went out onto the dock, making sure he took both the phones and the communications stone with him.

He spent a couple of hours casting in the pond, smiling to himself when he remembered the trip with Teal'c when he had insisted that you had to be up at dawn for the best chance of catching anything, and they had spent the whole of the trip catching nothing at all. T's face had been carved in stone! How someone could radiate that much disgust without a real change of expression still cracked Jack up!

He looked at his watch, getting on for 0815 Time to start planning what to set in motion first.

He rang the Oval office first, thanking the president for keeping the ship in orbit, and mentioning that maybe they could move Sam up there if they didn't manage to trap him tonight, after all there was no point going to all this trouble and then letting her walk into danger if they couldn't neutralise the threat. Hayes spent a lot of his time on the phone with Jack shaking his head, the man had no idea that HE was just as important to the safety of the world as she was. However if he could make Jack grateful for protecting his wife, then he may just be a bit more able to control him once they had to put him back in harness (Fat chance! Hayes thought to himself).

Then at 0829 he rang Cheyenne, using the direct line into Hanks office.

"Anything new happening yet?" he said

"Ok, first, as you expected yesterday, there's been no activity on the cell phone Shanahan had, it hasn't been turned on, so I think we can safely say it's in the bottom of a ravine in bits or similar" Hank started. "I rang Derek last night and offered him and Michelle a week at a luxury villa down in San Diego that the NID had as a safe house, it has a private beach and the dogs will love it! I thought that a week was better as they would have to drive and it's about 18 hours each way. Michelle sounded pleased in the background from what I could hear, he said he will be setting off in about," he looked at his watch, "90 minutes. I thought we could sent Teal'c and Daniel to your house at about the same time, that way if he is watching for the first opportunity to get in and lay in wait, we get there first"

"That OK with you two?" Asked Jack

"All ready here" said Daniel

"Indeed" said Teal'c

"Ok then, I'll get hold of Pendergast…"

"Don't bother Jack, we have it sorted here, the President was onto us first thing this morning, everything has been co-ordinated, the ship has the coordinates, and has also got a lock on both of YOU in case something unexpected happens."

"Both of us? They better not beam me out if he arrives here! Sam, yes, we don't have any weapons except my personal ones, which I am wearing, but if he turns up here I want to be left alone with him."

"That's a bit silly, even for you Jack, you don't know how he will be armed, he could have a high powered rifle, so we…well they… are also scanning the surrounding area, especially as it is all private land, and no-one but you two should be on it."

He signed off from the SGC and rang Michaels, nothing was happening much that he didn't already know, except that a unit of special forces was being dispatched to the ship in case someone was spotted close to the cabin, or even on their home at the Springs, they could intercept or neutralise any threat within a minute.

Jack was starting to think that maybe this was getting out of hand, then he remembered it was all for Sams safety, and nothing that kept her safe was too much.

Thinking of her, he turned his gaze towards the cabin, suddenly wanting to be next to her, he decided to wrap things up quickly and go put on the coffee machine, that was guaranteed to wake her, which was why he had had instant earlier. He had just turned it on when he heard Sam screaming from the bedroom!


	4. Chapter 4

4.

Sam was not resting as well as she had been, she had started tossing about the bed emitting a low moan, which gradually got louder and clearer "no…no…Jack you can't, I won't let you…No… NO!…JACK!" he rushed into the bedroom and virtually threw himself on the bed, his arms going around her as she started up from the nightmare.

"Shhh, it's ok love, I'm here" he carried murmuring reassuring nonsense to her until her heart rate slowed to normal. "Want to tell me about it?" It wasn't as if it was the first time one of them had had a nightmare, though somehow he managed never to have one offworld, or at least he never woke up screaming and sweating from one offworld, which both Daniel and Sam had done. Knowing what they had all been through these last 9 or 10 years, it was a wonder than anyone actually slept through a full night! His nightmares tended to go back further even than that, he still relived his time in Iraq, Charlies death and several of the things he had had to do for his government back in the 80's and 90's. His training in sleeping quietly went back even further than that, and he never relaxed offworld enough. So it was a huge shock for Sam when they started sleeping together and he let down his guard and relaxed in sleep, a couple of times she had tried to shake him awake, only to find herself pinned down in a choke hold before he realised who she was. She tried shouting at him after that, which never worked as he was screaming so hard he couldn't hear her, or was so wrapped up in trying to be silent that she couldn't get through. Eventually she worked it out, she had to either leave him alone until he woke himself up, or go to the door of the bedroom, open it and shut it again. Somehow the environmental noise always got through to him, and woke him straight up, she thought it was a defence mechanism from hospital, he was trying to not allow the staff to see how bad he really was, which would lead to psyc evals, and everyone knew how he loved to bark like a chicken and cluck like a dog!

This time her nightmare was of watching everyone she loved die of the plague, while she alone seemed immune to it, both her parents, Janet, Daniel, Teal'c and even General Hammond, but worst of all, Jack! He took longer to die than anyone, suffering more each day, until he eventually gave up! She knew she held the key, but had to watch them all die in great pain without once being able to do anything for them. She shook as she recounted it to him, the latest in a long line of things to haunt her, and the reason why she was so tired. The only full nights sleep she had had since it all started was the night before, where she was cuddled up to her husband from falling asleep to waking up. He still may not know how come he deserved her, but he was everything to her, including a magic charm to keep away the bogey man. She held onto him tightly, and he kissed her forehead, her cheeks, her neck, all the time telling her she was safe and loved. He was perfect!

Eventually she pulled herself together and noticed the smell of fresh brewing coffee in the air.

"Hmm that smells good; I'll just nip into the shower and be there for breakfast in 10 mins"

She got up and headed to the bathroom, while he straightened the bed up, he waited until she was in the shower and went in and collected the laundry from the hamper, and put it into a bag by the door, he would have to call the service to get them to collect it, he didn't know how much longer they would be there, and he had only brought 3 changes of clothes, thinking about it though, he could get Daniel to pack them a small case each and send it via the transporter. GOD! He had to stop thinking like this, it was getting too easy, they weren't there just so he could get fresh laundry! It was still tempting though, he grinned.

"What're you smiling about?" Sams voice came from the doorway. "that grin is the one you usually save for when you are thinking of things to annoy Daniel" she beamed at him, totally recovered from the bad dreams.

"Was just thinking, either I have to phone the laundry service, or use the multibillion dollar spaceship to beam us some more changes of clothes" He watched her think it over, a sly grin on her own face showing just how tempting it was.

"I think we should use the service, after all we wouldn't want them to go out of business just because we got lazy, would we?" she slipped behind him and headed for the coffee machine, pouring herself a mug full. She opened the box of Bagels to find only a couple left. "You had yours?" she asked

"Yeah, decided to get some fishing in early on" he saw her puzzled look and then she glanced at her watch. She looked at him and then back down again as if she didn't believe it "0936?"

"I thought you could do with a bit extra sleep" he remembered she had had a nightmare, and wondered if he had been right leaving her in bed when he got up, but she looked so much better than she had yesterday, not that he thought she ever looked bad! Even exhausted and covered in muck and injuries after that super soldier thing at the Alpha site, she was beautiful, but today she seemed to glow with health.

"I can't remember the last time I slept that long without it being in the infirmary, though I do feel wide awake now!" she remembered yesterday "Oh, what's happening with everything back home?"

Jack told her everything he knew, which wasn't much more than yesterday, it was a waiting game now.

He didn't want to go into town again, so he rang the laundry service for a collection, put the bag by the front door and they set off on a slow walk to the top of the hill overlooking the cabin, and walked the long way around the lake on the way back. They had just come in sight of the cabin when Jacks phone rang. He stopped dead to answer it.

"O'Neill, yeah, crap! Yeah sorry, my fault, yeah let her in, O'Neill out" he closed up the phone and groaned "we should have beamed it in! That was the special forces lads, they just jumped Edna!"

Sam looked at him, he could see her lips twitching, she was dying to laugh. "Sam! It isn't… Ok so actually it is a bit funny, but poor old Edna could have died from the shock" Edna, another old friend of the O'Neills, ran the laundry service in town, he would be hearing from her daughter, Rachael, next time he saw her, that was if she didn't storm up to the cabin as soon as she heard. Another thing he could do without, a pissed off Rachael!

They hurried back to the cabin, and managed to get to the front porch just in time to catch Edna as she was picking up the bag.

"Edna!" Jack shouted, she spun around startled for the second time this morning "I am SO SORRY Edna" he grabbed her and pulled her into a hug, she was a frail looking woman, not much over five feet tall and couldn't have weighed more than 7 stones, she seemed to be totally engulfed by the tall lanky general.

"Jonathan! Put me down you great ape!" Jack let her down and stepped back a bit, feeling like he was 12 again and had been caught stealing apples from the tree in her back yard.

"So sorry Edna, I forgot that they were there, I hope you are OK," he gave her the puppy dog expression that usually charmed any female (and some males) in seconds "Forgive me?"

"Young man, do you know there are men running about your land with GUNS? They held me up, like I was a stage coach in the old west!"

"Yes ma'am, I know they are there, you shouldn't have been stopped, it is totally my fault"

"How long will they be around?"

"They should be gone by tomorrow, maybe the day after"

"Then you have 48 hours running time before I tell our Rachael about it, last thing that girl needs is to know there are men in uniform about, especially young men in uniform, you know how she is!"

Oh yes, Jack did know how Rachael was when she saw a uniform, it was like releasing a moggie into a catnip factory, he had spent many a weekend while trying to 'get away from it all' trying to get away from Rachael, from the moment he sent his gran the first picture of him in uniform, back when he was just 17, Rachael had been trying to get him out of it and into her bed. She was not even put off when he married Sarah, always telling him that she wasn't right for him, that she (Rachael) could be better. She actually sent him a congratulations card when she heard about the divorce, he came within inches of hitting a woman at that time. However, she only sneered at Sam the once, and after trying to feel him up right in front of her, she suddenly found herself pinned to the wall of the shop in town they were stood outside, Sam told her, in no uncertain terms, just how unwelcome her advances were, and how they would not be tolerated again. It was the first time that Sam had ever shown jealousy where it came to Jack, and he was 'chuffed to bits' as his gran would have said, that she lost control like that, in public, and over HIM!

"You need to phone me when you are on your way back with the laundry Edna, so I can warn the boys that you are coming, and they don't waylay you again."

"I was going to send our Rachael with 'em Jonathan, but I daren't now"

"Don't worry Edna, if I tell the lads you are coming through, she won't even see them" Basically because they would still be in orbit, but all Edna needed to know was Rachael wouldn't be eloping if she sent her to Jacks to deliver the clothes.

"Ok Jonathan, I'll send her around first thing in the morning, any dress shirts to starch?"

"Naww, just the usual Cabin stuff, shorts, shirts, smalls"

"Ok, Ill be getting off then, look after yourselves you two, nice seeing you again Samantha"

And she climbed into her van, did an about face with it and trundled off back down the track towards town.

They went into the cabin, and just as Jack was about to get the communicator, a beam of light dropped some sandwiches, a couple of bowls of ice cream and fruit, and some fresh orange juice onto the table.

"Now that is what I call service" said Jack, and they tucked in!

It was getting on for late afternoon, and the longer they were without news, the more fidgety Jack was getting. Usually at the cabin, when they were together, they spent their time making love, or on the dock fishing, but that bit about high powered rifles made him reluctant to sit in the wide open for any length of time. Sam was still tired, though better than she had been, and no matter how much he wanted to, at his age there were limits to how many times a day he could manage 'it'!

He looked over at her, she was laid on the sofa, having started a journal on astrophysics, she had fallen asleep in the middle of reading a boring (and very wrong!) paper published by someone she disliked, her mouth was slightly open and her breathing was a soft sigh that he could just hear over the top of the music, playing at minimal volume. The piece ended and he slipped another disk in the machine, Bach, soothing at any volume, at a low setting it tempted him to join her in slumber.

He decided that it may be time to catch up on some things he had to do, so he went into the bedroom and from the safe under the floor he got out his laptop. He set himself up on the table, where he could see Sam, and hear the music, as well as being able to see anyone heading for the door. He slipped a disk into the machine that he had brought with him in his luggage and sat down to read through some reports from the committee and look over the specs of the newest aircraft made from hybrid technology.

He was concentrating that hard he never noticed Sam get up and sneak behind him to wrap her arms around him and look over his shoulder, she was surprised to see him looking over the engine specs of a new version of a glider, and making notes at the side in Goa'uld.

"Whatcha doin'?" she asked in imitation of all the times he had done the same thing to her.

"Just catching up on some paperwork. The diplomats are still pushing for some first hand knowledge of how things work, I'm thinking of allowing them on a trip, been writing an email to the Chinese to see when the best time is, I know that the president will want Woolsey, that just leaves the French and the Brits, the Russians are quite happy as they have their own team, I'll transmit it when I get back to the desk, you will probably hear the screams of whoever they get to babysit them when it's all arranged, thinking of recommending SG-3 for the job" He grinned wickedly, he knew just what the Marines would say to a babysitting job like this.

She pointed to the screen and the schematics displayed… "The exhaust from the coolant system is headed right past…"

"Spotted it," he pointed to the note in the margin.

"Damn all these years you were acting dumb, I could have had loads of time off!" she punched him lightly in the arm, "and when did you start writing notes in Goa'uld?"

"It makes sure that if the disks or computer go missing that people just can't use what they find"

"Why not use Ancient? We know there are still Goa'uld around, Ba'al for instance" she winced, she hated to even mention him to her husband, knowing his usual reaction to just the thought of the sadist.

"I can't get the damn machine to accept the characters for ancient, and anyway the techs that are reverse engineering can read this, I would have to translate again if I wrote in Ancient" She kissed him on the cheek lightly and went into the kitchen to put on a fresh pot of coffee, as she came back in she turned up the music a bit, and sat back down with her magazine.

"I wish I could write a rebuff to this pompous asshole" She complained, waving the offending article about "more than half of what he says is rubbish, the rest is just bad science" he just looked at her and shrugged, "You know he had the cheek to question one of my papers? Then he goes and writes this pile of garbage!"

"One day love, you know that…"

She sighed, yeah she knew, but it really could be very annoying, especially as the mistakes he was making she could have corrected him on over 11 years ago, as soon as the 'first' wormhole to Abydos had opened, of course she wasn't actually there to SEE the results of the theories and hard work, she had been in hospital recovering from the beating Jonas had given her when she sent back the ring to him. Of all the advances that had happened around the world as a result of the technology they had brought back, the one piece of tech they could not use anything of, was the Stargate itself! It would be a total and worldwide revolution of her particular field when it went public, and she wouldn't just be the person who understood it best in the limited number with clearance, she would be the leader of the entire branch of science. While quite modest usually, when it came to her science, she did want the academic worlds respect, rather than allowing this so-called-leader-in-his-field to dictate what could be published, when he was full of bull!

She was daydreaming of the look on his face when he found out about the gate when her cell phone rang.

"Carter" she said, not even checking who it was on the caller ID.

"Sam," her brothers voice came down the line "I just had a call from Pete, he wanted to know where you were again"

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him you were away with your husband until tomorrow, and tried to get him to tell me where he was, but he didn't want to tell me, sorry"

"I thought I asked you to phone Daniel if he got in touch"

"Yeah, sorry about this, I wrote the number down but the kids pinched the pad with it on and I can't find it"

"When did he call you?"

"About 5 minutes ago, I rang you straight away"

"And he didn't call you yesterday, or you call him?"

"No, if I had been in touch I would have let you know, I said I would"

That was one weight of her mind, Mark wasn't deliberately passing information, however it meant that there was a tap on his phone, and even this call would be recorded and available to him. "Mark, you will be getting a visit from someone soon, not sure if it will be FBI or someone from the forces, but I think there's a tap on your phone, Pete could be listening in right now, he knew we had been talking yesterday within minutes of us doing it. I'll have someone come around and remove it, they may not even have to come in the house"

"Sam! For Gods sake, what is all this James Bond stuff! You are just a Colonel that works on radar in a mountain! Why the hell would he bug my phone to find you, and how can YOU get someone around to check on my phone line?" She closed her eyes and sighed, Mark wasn't really that naive, he had to know that 'Deep Space Radar Telemetry' was a cover, for Gods sake, her dad had been cured of a cancer that was so serious the hospital had phoned him to come to his death bed. But then General Carter had never worked covert, and he had been just another cog in the military wheel, a larger cog than most, but nowhere near the influence that Jack was at now. Thinking of him, she looked over to find him on the phone himself, he held up his fingers and pointed, as usual she knew exactly what his signalling meant.

"Someone will be there in less than 30 minutes Mark," she looked at him again and he mouthed SF and pointed straight up. He put four fingers against the back of his wrist. "A Colonel with the right equipment and expertise is on his way Mark, just let him do his job, please!"

"Ok Sam, you are the one who is wasting the Airforces time and resources with this, I really think you need more than a couple of days rest though. I'll call you later, let you know when they don't find anything."

"Fine Mark. Just let them look, humour me. I'll talk to you later" She put the phone down.

"I don't suppose I can blame him, things like this just don't happen to normal people, and he doesn't know how far from 'normal' our lives are."

Jack finished up his conversation with whoever it was and went and sat next to Sam on the sofa, he threw his arm around her shoulders and hugged her to him "With a bit of luck Pete will think you are gong home tomorrow and will break in tonight to lay in wait, T will get him, and all this will be over, we can get back to as 'normal' as we ever get" he kissed her forehead and then rose to get them both some coffee. "I think I'll go chop some wood, work off all this good eating we have been doing"

Sam shivered at the thought, Jack usually chopped wood topless and just the thought of watching his muscles rippling and sweat running down his chest were enough to make her want to jump him there and then, but even better if she waited, she could actually SEE what she was busy imagining, and THEN jump him!

He knew what she was thinking, her breath was getting heavier, and her chest moving our further, her nipples giving it away if nothing else was. He grinned to himself as he closed the top on the computer and went out through the door. He made sure he was facing away from the cabin while chopping the wood, so he could watch the forest in front of him, knowing that no-one could see him from the road approach as the building was in the way. He worked up quite a decent pile of split logs in 20 minutes and was just stacking it against the back wall, under the extension of the eves that kept it dry, when he heard Sams phone go off, it was a bit quick for Mark gloating, so he picked an armful of wood up and went back inside.

Sam was sat on the sofa still, but she was bolt upright and stiff, her face looked shocked, and her eyes darted straight to his as he came in. "What's wrong Sam?"

"That was PETE!"


	5. Chapter 5

5.

"That was PETE! He rang to tell me he knows I don't love you, and he will be waiting to help me run away when I get home"

"What!? How did he get the phone number? Why didn't you keep him talking and come get me? I could have ordered a trace and we could have pinpointed him!"

Sam shook her head, her eyes moving from side to side rapidly as thoughts worked their way to the front of her mind "He hung up, not me, the call was very quick, no number displayed on the phone, I just can't understand how he got my cell number, it isn't as if it is listed anywhere that he could find it."

"What about your old house, does the SF living there have it written down for if something goes wrong?"

"No, if it's something to do with the house he contacts the accommodation officer, if it's personal he gets in touch at work when he gets in using the internal phone system, apart from the SGC, SG-1 and Mark the only other person who has it is Cassie… Oh GOD! CASSIE!" She picked her phone back up and rang her god daughter straight away, Cassie must have been almost sat ON the phone, she answered so quick.

"Dominic giggle I told you not to call me straight back, it's really too early for phone sex!"

"Cassie! I REALLY didn't want to hear that!" Sam looked up in wide eyed shock, so much that Jack raised his eyebrows and mouthed 'what?' Sam waved her hand helplessly at him to calm him down.

"Oh God Sam! I'm Sooooooo sorry! I … erm … I"

"I know what 'I…erm…I' was talking about, young lady! I just rang to make sure everything is OK, I just thought of you and wondered how you were getting on…"

"Since you phoned me 4 days ago? Well, not much, the classes are the same, the people are the same, the dorm is the same… no news at all to be honest. Actually my life turned boring when I came away from the Springs, I can't wait for the end of term to come back for a while, think the boys will be able to get away for a barbeque at your house?"

"I'm sure I will be able to persuade them love, we may even manage to get a couple of bad tempered generals to come as well" she smiled at Jack

"George and who else?" he whispered

"Is that Jack? HELLO JACK" Cassie screamed, luckily for Sam this wasn't the first time Cassie had done this and knew to move the phone away from her ear before being deafened.

"Hiya Cassie, I hope you're behaving yourself, what was it made Sam turn purple when you answered the phone?"

"Nothing… just a joke, you wouldn't understand it" she was tripping over the words, trying to get them out that fast, and Sam grinned up at him, which made him want to know even more.

"You know Sam will tell me when you finish on the phone" Sam started shaking her head, the one thing she was NOT going to tell Jack was that their god daughter was having phone sex with her boyfriend, not only would Sam die of embarrassment thinking that she knew enough about the act to simulate it, she knew Jack would be hunting Dominic down to terrorise him into celibacy.

"Naww she won't tell, it's nothing to do with you, anyway, was there any other reason you rang?"

"Just wondering if you had seen anyone… unusual, or heard from someone unexpected lately?" She bit her bottom lip, there was no way she could work Pete into casual conversation with Cassie, she didn't like him, she thought that Sam and Jack should be together and made sure that Pete knew how she felt when she was back for the holidays. She ended up staying with either Daniel or Jack if Pete was at Sams.

"Noooo" drawled Cassie "who do you mean?"

"I was wondering if you had given out my phone number to anyone, like, say Pete" she winced, waiting for the reply

"I wouldn't give him your phone number if he asked, if he begged even, but I haven't seen him as it happens, in-fact even the admin office has Jacks number nowadays as he isn't…" she lowered her voice "off-world like you are sometimes, and they can get him 24/7 unless he is in with the president, which always impresses them if his aide says that" Sam smiled again, she could see how it would enhance Cassie's standing with the faculty if her guardian was meeting with the president when they called.

"Ok love, had to ask as he phoned me a couple of minutes ago and we can't figure out how he got the number."

"One person here has a good party trick, though they are a music major, and blind as it happens, they can tell the phone number just by hearing the tones, each number has a different tone, and she can tell the difference, she wins bets with newbies with it"

"Hmm thanks, never thought of that"

"That's 'cos you're old, your phones used to have clicks instead of tones" she could almost see Cassie putting her tongue between her teeth and grinning, the way she always did when she was being cheeky.

"That's it young lady! I'm going to make Jack take you fishing!" a threat worse than death for the city kid that Cassie had turned into since coming to earth.

"Noooo. I'll be goooood… promise!" Cassie was giggling like mad, and Jack looked like an injured puppy "I'll let you two get back to whatever it was you were doing, and talk to you as usual at the weekend Sam, LOVE YOU JACK!" she shouted, and put the phone down.

"She has a friend who can tell phone numbers by the tones as someone dials, Pete just got a recording off Marks phone with him calling me, I guess we know where he got the number now"

She sighed, it really shouldn't be happening. Pete was the only boyfriend that she had ever had that had not been part of the 'lunatic fringe' that she was so attracted to, even Jack had his black side, special ops did that to you, and she had seen first hand just how much he could distance himself on nothing more than a set of orders, that whole bit with the Tollan and stolen equipment, he could have won awards for his acting, he was that good. The SF colonel that was looking for the tap should be reporting back soon, and Sam was just hoping that he could make her brothers house clean, and of course in the back of her mind, where it wasn't thinking very loud, she wanted Mark to see whatever it was that Pete had used, so he didn't think she was delusional after all.

Sam stood up and crossed to Jack, who was sitting on the hearth, feeding the fire, she squatted down and put her arms over his shoulders, breathing in the scent of him, warm, strong, musky, and in a strange way safe. His hair was almost dry on the top of his head, but the short hairs at the nape of his neck were still stuck to his skin. "We going to wait for the report from Marks house, then get a shower?" she rubbed her face in his hair.

"Trying to save water colonel?" he asked, turning around and pulling her onto his lap

"Jack your knees!" she struggled to get up but he just held her there, nuzzling into her neck and kissing just below her ear, she shivered and gave a low moan "Jack let me get up, you won't be up for anything if your knees start hurting you"

"Sam, how long have we been married?"

"You don't know?" she grinned "Ok, I'll bite, 5 months, 2 weeks, 4 days and…"

"And in all that time, have you EVER heard me complain about my knees?"

"Well no, but then I have seen you take a staff blast and not complain" She had a point there, he conceded

"Ok let me put it another way, can you remember what your dad first said to you after he and Selmak blended?"

"Ermm, something to do with him being in there, then he jumped off the bed and said…" She looked at him open mouthed "You said you took the promotion because you would fail the physical! You LIED! Kanan healed your knees, and back! Jack why did you leave SG-1?"

"Because, it was time you got your own command, you had been ready for it for a bit, but the brass wouldn't believe me, they said your promotion to major was too recent, so I took the SGC on because I could promote you and give you SG-1, when you left for '51 and then decided to come back I was wondering what you were going to say about me putting Mitchell was in charge, but you said you were happy enough doing what you were doing, and by that time we were close enough that I could see you WERE happy letting someone else make the battle decisions, while you could step back and think your way out of the messes they got you into. Another thing is, of course, that I can actually do a lot for the SGC that George couldn't, they saw him as a pen pusher, not the great man he is, and they somehow see me as a great man, God knows why, but I can USE that, to get my own way." Sam was nodding through most of this very long, for Jack, speech, until he got to that last part, and she shook her head and grinned at him, he just honestly did not believe that he was a hero, a great man and worthy of the respect that he engendered.

Jacks phone rang, he managed to get it out of his pocket and open it, without letting Sam get off his knees "O'Neill, yes…is that all of it? You don't say, yes I'll let her know…erm… don't suppose there's any way to trace who collected the…no, well yes we know who, but I mean the phone number he used today…oh, right, any luck? … Still in the Springs then? …Ok Colonel. Keep your eyes out around the house, don't forget that Teal'c and Daniel are in there, if you decide to 'beam them up' at least those 2 will know what's happening and not drop their guards… Ok… keep me apprised, O'Neill out

"They found 2 taps, one at the pole and one in the phone in the hallway, both were reporting to a recorder in Pete's old flat in Denver, and he was accessing the recordings remotely by phoning in. They couldn't get a number off the line as it only accepted incoming calls and there's something the phone companies do to lines like that which means they can't back track, not sure what it is, anyway, by order of 'above' both our phones are being monitored" he waited for the explosion, but it didn't come, after all both of them had worked at classified installations for the last god knows how long, and all calls are monitored there, they were used to it in a way "They got Pete's new number when he phoned you, but by the time they got a fix and got to the phone, it was on a park bench at that place we used to take Cassie" Sam remembered the park and she could give good odds that she knew which bench, the one Pete had proposed to her on. She sighed and picked up her phone, looking at it to make sure it had a signal "Ahh, yes, the Colonel did say that Mark wouldn't be calling you, he told him to tell you that he was sorry."

Bloody typical, he just could not admit to being wrong! Not to her anyway, she could probably count on one hand the number of times he had apologised to her, and the number where he had said 'I'm wrong' needed less hands than THAT! However at least they knew that Pete was still hanging around Colorado, the bait of an 'empty' house may just tempt him enough, and by tomorrow all this would be over.

She put her head back onto Jacks shoulder and whispered in his ear "I think then, that we need to go save some water" Jack stood up, without letting her go and carried her, laughing, into the master bedroom.

The next morning they both woke at 0600 again, after another good sleep, following a gourmet dinner and a very relaxing, or stimulating, depending how you look at it, shower.

Both of them had half been expecting to be woken in the night by a report that Shanahan had been captured, or at least seen, but they had been undisturbed.

At 07:30 his phone rang, a worried whispering Daniel "Jack, something is wrong…or not right… we heard something about half an hour ago outside, and kept out of sight, the ship said they had someone on the scanner, but they can't 'beam him up' sounds like the field Sam used to stop Osiris leaving my house, or something similar, Teal'c is going to try and exit through the crawlspace under the floor and come at him from behind, but can you ask Sam if she knows if he knows about the field generator, or any tech that he could be using?"

Jack turned to Sam and repeated the question, but just the look on her face answered him. "No Daniel she has no idea, remember he got low level clearance… well low level for us… he knows about the 'gate, he knew about Jacobs snake, and Osiris, but not much else"

"I never told him any details of anything, even when we were engaged, when he would push all I would say was that we got into a fight, if I had injuries, or that we had 'technical' difficulties if I was away longer than I should have been" Sam said into the phone, leaning her head on Jacks shoulder so they could both hear Daniels whisper.

"Another thing, Sams car was broken into at Peterson, we sent over the team, seems there used to be something attached to the underside, there's a patch totally clear of rust and dirt on the underside, and the carpet under the passenger seat is split, they THINK there may have been a GPS locator and maybe a bug in there, no idea how long though"

"Shit!" Sam said exhaling loudly "I really know how to pick them" her husband raised one eyebrow, a trick he got from Teal'c "Used to know how to pick them… I'm all better now!" she corrected herself. He smirked at her and they could hear Daniel stifling a laugh on the other end.

Sams phone rang, it was Colonel Pendergast "I can't get hold of Dr. Jackson, his phone is busy, the individual who was at your house is moving off, Teal'c is in pursuit… he is getting into a car… we will keep tracking him and try to get him and the vehicle into the cargo bay if possible, let you know what happens as and when… Prometheus out"

She relayed it to Jack and Daniel, and heard the latter shout to Teal'c as the alien re-entered the house. Another waiting game, but at least they had a sign of their quarry now.

It was less than three quarters of an hour when Pete got himself lost in a huge shopping centre, he never went back to the car he had been using, a rental it turned out, and now they were back to square one.

Edna rang at 0930 to say Rachael had already set off, and to check that she had rung them to tell them as she had promised (of course Rachael had done no such thing) and they warned the ship not to send down the special forces as she was expected. Rachael was as annoying as always, and Sam made sure she stayed in direct line-of-sight the whole time, she left quite quickly, it wasn't often Sam did 'menacing' but she could be VERY good at it!

Early in the afternoon Jack was starting to get fidgety, he could wait with infinite patience when he was on an op, on 'obo', but this type of waiting just got on his nerves, he contacted his Aide and they arranged an exchange of disks during the next drop from the ship, so that the work Jack had already done could be forwarded to the right people, and he could catch up with the things he should have been back to deal with.

He spent a good 2 hours after lunch looking at his work, but nothing was sinking in, and he gave up, got a beer and lounged on the sofa pulling the frills off a cushion, Sam watched him while pretending to read, she wished there was something she could do, but even her hints at lovemaking were not being taken, he was worried, the fact that Pete had access to tech he wasn't supposed to even know about meant he could have other, more dangerous toys.


	6. Chapter 6

6.

Two days later and there was still no news or sign of Pete. Jack was under more and more pressure to get back to his office, and Sam was starting to think she would be better off in the SGC doing some work than sitting in the cabin waiting.

If they had been on holiday it wouldn't have mattered to them, they could have spent a lot longer in each others company without even thinking the word bored, but the tension was wearing on them both.

In the end Jack decided that they would BOTH go to the SGC and that his aide could come too! There were other staff who could provide a physical presence in the office, and the secure lines in the SGC meant he could get work done a lot faster. He contacted Hank to get a couple of VIP rooms set up, one to sleep in, and one for an office space, and a billet for Michaels, saying that if it lasted more than a couple of weeks he would bring Mrs. Michaels and their daughters to Peterson, or even a hotel, so they could see each other. He knew moving about and being away from home was all part and parcel of being in the armed services, but after being more than three years at the same location, and seeing your husband every night, he knew it would hit her more than it should.

Nothing happened after the first week, and orders came down for the Prometheus to break orbit and SG1 were due to visit a planet in the Asgard protected planet network, so Jack and Michaels went back to DC so that he could get all the meetings that just 'had to be in person' out of the way.

He rang Sam every evening she was on Earth, and heard all about the problem with Mitchell, the man was turning into a trouble magnet! It was just as Jack was going between the Pentagon and the White House that the shit hit the fan, a huge lorry swerved across several lanes of traffic and side swiped his official car into the concrete barriers, his driver was killed instantly, and Jack, who had not had his seat belt on as he was working on his laptop, received a concussion, several nasty bruises and a broken leg, On the way to the hospital he kept telling the paramedics that they must contact the president, and not to contact his wife! He didn't want her worrying. The paramedics thought he was delusional, but did pass on that he did not want his Next of Kin informed, they said nothing about the president. He woke up in hospital several hours after the crash, and made sure that everyone knew that they had NOT to call his wife, as he wasn't that seriously hurt, and that he wanted a phone to call the White House!

The doctor found him several hours later staggering down the corridor trying to get to a phone. For the good of his health his doctor gave him a phone and told him they were going to sedate him if he moved off the bed again! He phoned the White House to realise that they were all looking for him, and no-one had been informed about the accident, nor did anyone know the condition of his driver. Less than an hour later the hospital staff (including the paramedics who had brought Jack in) were astonished to see the President of the United States with full security enter the building and demand to see 'The General'

"Well Jack, you look a mess!"

"Gee thanks Mr President, have you any news about my driver?" The look on Henry Hayes' face told Jack that he would be writing a letter to, or visiting, the young mans family. He sighed, of all the dangerous places the young airman could have been assigned, DC shouldn't have been the one to take his life.

"Got another problem Jack, the driver who ran into your car, he was drugged, and we aren't sure exactly what it is that he has taken, but he seems to be suffering from violent withdrawal, and the doctors can't say if he will even live. He remembers being pulled over by a cop, and having to take a random breath test, the cop gave him some gum as he let him go, and that was less than five minutes before he ran into you. The Secret service and the FBI are looking into it, but so far no officers have admitted to conducting the test, and he spit the gum out when he fell out of the cab after crashing. We also can't find out why an official car in an accident, especially one with a fatality, was not reported to the Pentagon, as it should have been, not sure if it is by mistake, or sabotage."

As if they didn't have enough to worry about, it looked like someone could be coming after HIM! Thinking about it, though, Jack would definitely rather it be himself that was the target and not Sam.

"Sir, how about we see if this was an accident, get the Pentagon to issue a statement saying I am badly hurt, though expected to survive, and we can see if anyone comes in to finish the job?"

"The Prometheus is heading to the Gamma site to deliver stuff too large to fit through the gate, the mission was delayed a while as you know, the Odyssey is en-route but won't be here for a couple more days, and we cannot seal off a hospital, it's a logistical nightmare even to cover the usual exits"

"I don't want you to seal it off, or cover any exits, I want them to try, and we won't know who it is unless they get into here. All I need are a zat, a knife, and a 9mil, and for the staff not to drug me into helplessness"

"You can't have a zat in here! God Jack what are you thinking?!"

"No one will know what it is, unless I use it, and I have a feeling that if someone does come after me, they will know more than just what a zat looks like!"

"And what about your wife? Why have you left orders that she isn't to be informed?"

"If they tell Sam, the first thing she will do is head here, that puts her into danger, and it isn't as if the injuries are that serious, and she is still busy with the aftermath of that Galaran mess. We may just be barking up the wrong tree, but it could be something to do with that nutter of a cop Shanahan as well, whichever, Sam stays at the SGC safe, I'll deal with this."

They argued about it for another half hour, until George Hammond turned up to visit, having been told by Hayes what had happened, and though George wasn't best pleased, he did agree with Jack that it was for the best if they could catch the person responsible, if there was one. The two older men did, however, insist that there was an airman guarding the room, as it would look suspicious if there was no one. They then had to convince the doctor about not prescribing any strong pain killers or sedatives, and had to mention that someone may be trying to kill his patient AND that it was classified and not even his nursing staff needed to know any details.

The trap was baited once again, would it get sprung this time?


	7. Chapter 7

7.

Jack was laid on his side, facing the door when he noticed a shadow pass the crack of light that crept in through the gap at the bottom. Since the end of usual visiting hours on the ward, no-one had passed his door, there were only a couple of rooms beyond his on the corridor, it made it easier for security. There hadn't been a sound from the airman on guard, neither a greeting nor a challenge, but for some reason the hairs on the back of is neck stood up.

His left hand closed around the zat, priming it, his right hand was on top of the covers, holding his knife just out of sight, he wasn't taking the chance that whoever it was didn't have one of those Goa'uld personal shields that would ignore a zat blast or a bullet. The secret service had installed a camera on the wall behind him, watching the door, and in the room farthest down the corridor, two doors away, six men were watching the video feed.

Jack could FEEL someone, just outside the door, and the troubling thing was the reason he could feel them, Naqahdah! Ever since his 'blending' with Kanan he could sense the presence of a symbiote, the same way that Sam was able to and Teal'c once could (Teal'c had lost the ability when he started on tretonin). He had been expecting his visitor to be the ex-cop but now he was more than a little surprised, why the hell would a Goa'uld be outside his hospital room? How would they know where to find him, and why would they CARE? He was no longer on SG1, and as far as the system lords were concerned he may as well be dead, he was that far out of the picture, to them, he was in a totally different art gallery!

The door opened slowly, and a blond head appeared, Jack looked relaxed on the bed, his eyes all but closed as he watched the medium sized body slip totally into the room and close the door behind him.

"Whatya doin' _PETE_" he asked causing the younger man to jump slightly, "Or are you going to tell me the name of your snake so we know exactly where we stand?"

Pete's eyes flashed, and the hollow deep voice of the Goa'uld spoke out "You are not worthy to speak my name, but you DO know of me, in fact we have met, several times, I once had the pleasure of overseeing your death, more than once actually human"

Shit! Ba'al! Somehow the Ba'al symbiote had infected Sams ex lover, no wonder he had access to the toys of a major player!

"Bocce! How ya doin'?" he said in that light hearted tone he knew annoyed the snake so much "Thought you had left after that damn fiasco in Seattle, bet that cut into the royal treasury losing all that naqahdah, and for gawds sake, why the hell invade this guy? I mean come on, he isn't your usual type of host"

"Ahh but he has just what I need, an insight into the workings of the Tauri way of life, the evils and degradations you put yourselves through, and of course, personal knowledge of a certain female, what does it feel like human? To know that my body once had intimate knowledge of your mate?"

What did it feel like? It made Jack sick to his stomach, he had a hard enough time with his jealous nature accepting that he was not the only person alive who knew Sam in that way, but for Ba'al of all…_THINGS_…it was almost enough to make him lose his temper and his last meal, there and then, and Ba'al read it in his body language, gloating.

Jack took a deep breath and smiled at his enemy, "Yeah, you must admit though, she chose the better man in the end, I mean, have you SEEN your host? Not exactly tall dark and handsome, not even one of those three!" if there was one thing you could count on with snakes, they were vain. Hopefully he would be causing Pete to struggle in there as well, anything that may distract Ba'al even the slightest was worth it, he may disclose more than the usual 'you are going to die' rhetoric.

"We will be getting her in the end though, I was disappointed that she didn't rush to your side after I arranged the crash, but once you are dead the first thing that will happen will be the hospital will call her and she will rush to your body. In that ill thought time we will be able to take her and make her a host as well, to have, not only the foremost of the Tauri Chaapa'ai scientists, but the knowledge of the systems surrounding your defence network, and her computer skills, well, that is only a part of what makes this whole venture worthwhile. And my revenge as I take her as mate will be sweet as well."

That did it, Jack sat up and discharged the zat straight at him. The usual flicker of the Goa'uld personal shield showed the charge dissipating, and Jack waited until he raised his hand, and in a throw exactly the same as the one he had done to Heru'ur over six years ago, put the knife straight through the palm of his hand. The security force slammed into the room, knocking the system lord to the floor as he cradled his injured limb.

"We will hold him here until someone comes to take him" Jack said, getting slowly off the bed, after all he was still slightly concussed, and had a cast on his leg, he stepped over to where the struggling man was being held and roughly took back his knife, he wiped it on the shoulder of Pete's shirt. "Hold his hand over the sink until he stops bleeding, we don't want anyone slipping in here" Jack said coldly.

"Shouldn't we call a doctor for him, sir?" one of the SFs said

"Naww he'll be fine, wont ya Bocce? The snake will stop the bleeding quickly, but boys, keep your eyes peeled, the snake may not stay in him, if you see it start to leave him, zat it, we will be getting the Tok'ra in to remove it soon anyway, I understand that that is REALLY painful" He shouldn't be gloating in this way, but he was tired and in pain, and the threats the snake had made against Sam were echoing in the back of his mind.

Suddenly Petes voice came out of his mouth "O'Neill, I hope you don't think you have won here! I know my Sam, it is only a matter of time before she gets tired of you, old man, you wont be able to keep up with her and she WILL want me again. Even if you get rid of my partner in here, Sam will still be mine in the end, and I will show her the depth of her mistakes over a long period of time, I will have her screaming my name in both pleasure and pain, and cursing yours!"

Jack was going to lose it! In fact the only thing keeping the man alive was the fact that Jack didn't want any witnesses to what he was going to do to him! As a hand to hand combatant Jack knew lots of ways to kill men, without breaking a sweat, and he had learnt several more in the short time he and Kanan had been joined, most of THOSE unpleasant in the extreme. The leader of the security detail saw the muscles in Jacks jaw tighten and recognised the extreme danger of this man, Generals were not supposed to get their hands dirty, but if the scuttlebutt about this particular one was correct, he may be the one man in the whole of the USA that the team leader could actually FEAR as well as respect! He also realised that if he wanted to keep his prisoner alive he better shut him up, and quick! He took a clean hankie out of his pocket and a couple of plastic ties and went to the man being held, he thumped him sharply in the gut and as his mouth opened he shoved the hankie in and slipped the ties around his head, a crude but effective gag.

"Thank you" Jack said, getting back on his bed, watching with satisfaction as the young man tried to catch his breath through his nose. He reached over and got his phone from the bedside cabinet "I take it you have reported in?"

"Yessir! We reported straight to the White House as soon as he entered the room, and one of my men is still watching through the camera and reporting the ongoing situation as we speak, sir"

"Fine, fine, someone should be here soon to take this…thing… to '51 now if you don't mind I have my own reporting in to do, so could you all be quiet"

The men stood back against the walls, trying to pretend they weren't there, wishing that they could have taken the prisoner and gone back to the end room instead of disturbing the much needed rest of this man who had made himself the bait in what could have been a deadly trap!

"Sam, yeah sorry I didn't call earlier love, got caught up in a meeting, you know how the president is. How was your day?" Jacks was light and normal, showing none of the strain that his face did, as he listened, nodded and made an occasional comment to his wife. "I would love to be able to make it this weekend love, but I have to take a trip to China, Shen Xiaoyi, is still shouting about how she wants to witness the 'wonders of the universe' first hand. Looks like it is defiantly going to go ahead… yeah SG3, No giggling Colonel! I'll call you tomorrow morning, Oh, ok… how long a mission? Then I'll call you tomorrow night! I love you… bye"

He looked straight at Ba'al and grinned "She seems happy enough to me Bocce, Pete, think your brains are addled… nothing to say?" he smiled at the gagged man who was trying to spit the hankie out, "thought not" he looked at the men who were trying to pretend they were not there, "It's OK lads won't be long now"

Ten minutes later the transport to '51 had arrived and another airman was on duty outside Jacks door, the one who had allowed himself to be slipped a mickey was sleeping it off in another room. Jack didn't realise it but the six man team were back in the end room watching over him as ordered as he slipped into as deep a sleep as he would allow, given the fact that he wasn't in his own bed.

He woke up after less than two hours, having woken himself by shouting at a nightmare, the watching eyes of the security men were sympathetic, rather than full of pity, as most of them had had similar dreams in their time.

By the time he 'got back' from China, he had missed a whole roomful of Carters! Damn now that would have been a sight to see, his little general twitched at the thought! The Tok'ra had not got back in touch, which wasn't surprising really given that the 'gate had been effectively shut down for several days, and yet another attempt had been made to get into Sams files from the FBI office!

SG1 were on their way home having 'arrested' themselves and of course Sam had a plan on how to get all the SG1 teams back to their own realities, and Jack was working out how to explain a broken leg in such a way that his wife wouldn't drop everything and rush to his side. Not that he didn't want to see her but the computer breech at the Hoover building suggested that there may still be some danger.

He was back in his office at the Pentagon, reading through some reports when he suddenly shouted "MICHAELS"

"He's never heard of an intercom" muttered one of the juniors.

"I heard that!" his voice came through the door.

"Damn! Busted!" She grinned, she just loved working for this man, he had a sense of humour, that very few of his level did. Or if they did, they never allowed the rank and file to see it!

Sgt. Michaels went into his boss, grinning as well, but soon stopped when he saw the look on his bosses face.

"Sir?"

"This report, from the NID, any chance I can get whoever wrote it on the phone?"

Michaels looked at the file upside down… "Yessir! I think I can get him straight away"

"It's urgent Michales, make it fast if you can"

The sergeant exited the room and went to his machine to type in the agent number, files from the NID didn't come with names on, just numbers, and he had to log into a VERY secure and double encrypted file to find out who was actually who… and it changed month by month as well, so Agent 14 would not be the same person in November as he had been in October, or would be in December. So he had to put the date and file number in as well as the agent number to get the information he needed.

Finally after double blind security checks, he had the name of the agent, and a direct line through to him, he went back into his boss. "Sir Agent Barrett is on line one, he is the one who wrote the report sir."

"Malcolm Barrett?" Michaels nodded, surprised that the General would know this specific agent personally, "Oh goody, there's something I wanted to rub his nose in as well" he had that look on his face that would have made a shark think twice, and reached over picking up the phone "That will be all for now Sergeant" he waited until the door shut before pressing the top button on the phone.

"Malcolm! Jack O'Neill here, whatya doin'?"

"Erm, on surveillance sir, trying to find out if Ba'al is serious about wanting to live here, as he said in his message to the SGC, so far he seems to be keeping his head down"

"Not quite down Malcolm, the Ba'al symbiote infected Pete Shanahan and tried to kill me the other night"

"Your kidding!" Malcolm almost shouted down the phone "Why weren't we informed?"

"You work for ME remember, not the other way on, now what do you mean he is keeping his head down? He's been totally out of sight for how long?"

"Not totally out of sight, just not doing anything suspicious for a few weeks, in fact I was looking at him less than 2 hours ago"

"How can that be? We have been holding Shanahan at '51 for days"

"Sorry Sir, but I can assure you this is not just an empty host, Ba'al is definitely in there, his eyes glowed"

"Could another symbiote be inhabiting Ba'al old body?"

"I doubt it sir, I can't see Ba'al risking anyone posing as him, but there was that report that he could be cloning himself, maybe he cloned just a symbiote, or even a full clone and the symbiote left him, in that case anyone, anywhere could be Ba'al!"


	8. Chapter 8

8.

God the thought of it sent shudders through Jack, more than one of the evil bastard was bad enough, but versions that he couldn't recognise? THAT was what nightmares were made of. He made a note on the legal pad on his desk to check on the new security measures in the Hoover building, and see if they were any closer to finding out who had used the machine to try and hack into the SGC.

"Sir… General O'Neill…" Jack came back to himself with a start

"Sorry Barrett, what did you say?"

"I asked if you were sure the symbiote infecting Shanahan was Ba'al and not something, someone else?"

"I'll make a note to have him asked"

"Hows Sam… I mean Colonel Carter, taking the fact that her ex is infested?"

"She doesn't know as yet, and Malcolm…" he waited a second "She doesn't find out either, not yet"

"Why not sir? She could be a great help interrogating him, and she has a right to know, after all they were engaged"

"Barrett! I said she does not need to know, there's a chance we may not be able to remove it, would YOU like to see someone you cared for in that situation?" He flashed back to when he found out that Sam had been infected by Jolinar, even when he couldn't admit to anyone how he felt, it was almost as bad as losing Charlie. Though the feelings didn't run quite that deep back then, knowing she was lost, but still seeing her there in front of him, caused a special type of anguish.

Malcolm was quiet on the other end of the phone line, thinking about how he would react if it was someone he cared about, unfortunately the only person who he could think of to put in the lead role was Sam Carter, O'Neill was right, she may be better off not knowing.

"Where is Colonel Carter at the moment anyway, Sir? I've been meaning to get in touch with her ever since that Seattle deal, but being on full time surveillance of this snake has stopped me"

"She is busy working out how to make a bridge between realities at the moment" Jack told him, "I am sure she would love to hear from you"

"Oh?" Jack smiled at the lift in Malcolms voice, the hope that 'not exactly' may now be 'available'

"Tell you what, why don't you come around for dinner next time we can all get to the same city at the same time? I'll let her know you asked and see if she can arrange something"

"Erm, yes sir, I would love that," now the man was definitely puzzled wondering why Jack was making it a threesome.

"MICHAELS, GET MY WIFE ON THE PHONE WILL YOU!" Jack shouted, not covering the mouthpiece but moving it away slightly "I'll get her to call you Barrett, and keep an eye on that snake!"

He put the phone down, sniggering to himself as he pictured the agents face, serves him right for asking a married woman out on a date, Jack hated the fact that he couldn't shout it out across the whole world, but he knew Sam trusted the NID Agent, and he also knew that they were all scanned daily if on snake duty to make sure none of them were infected.

He frowned at the thought, it was too late, Ba'al, through Pete and Mark knew that Sam and he were married, luckily the system lords were not known for freely sharing the information.

"Colonel Carter on line two general" the intercom said, Jack shook himself again, damn it was catching, he was overthinking everything of late.

"Sam, all your visitors gone home yet?" They spoke for several minutes, and he had a laugh with her over Malcolms probable reaction, and then came the question he had been waiting for…

"Any word on Pete yet, Jack?"

"He seems to have dropped off the map love" he said, which was the truth at least, if not the whole truth

"I want to go home Jack, Derek and Michelle are home and have rung a couple of times to ask if everything is OK. I'm running out of toiletries as well and every time I ask Vala to get me some she brings back everything but the ones I want, she must have hundreds of different smells to chose from now!"

"Would you be terribly upset if I asked Teal'c to go with you love? I know you can look after yourself normally, but don't forget the force shield that stopped him being beamed out, he could have a zat, it looks like he may have been in contact with Ba'al in Seattle, it was about that time that he left the force" He held his breath slightly, glad she couldn't see his face, he had always prided himself on his 'poker' face, but she had learnt how to read every expression, and there was no way he could get away with the stunt he pulled back on Tollana nowadays, she would see straight through the deception.

"Ok Jack, I'll take our tame Jaffa with me… I suppose I better just water the plants and clear out the fridge, and then head back here, we don't want people thinking I'm having an affair with Teal'c" He relaxed a bit, and decided to get hold of the big man and Daniel and let them in on all that had happened in DC, to make sure they looked after her without worrying her, on second thoughts, maybe just Teal'c, Daniel easier to read than a primary school book!

As soon as he had put the phone down from her he rang Ts phone, and quickly filled him in on everything, Teal'c had a very interesting suggestion, threaten to use the symbiote poison to kill both Ba'al and Pete to get information, and that would mean that Jack would have to do it in person. Not many people could make a threat like that and make someone like Pete believe it, he was, after all, a cop and good at reading folk.

Jack left his wife in the warriors care and got hold of the president to arrange a visit to '51, getting the go ahead after a small discussion, after all Henry could see the point of knowing just how many 'Ba'al's there were out there. Jack then got hold of the security wing at '51, only to be told that the prisoner had been transferred to a NID base for further interrogation and had escaped, again a vital communication had gone astray and he had an eighteen hour head start!

Sam was wandering up and down the isles of her favourite drug store when Teal'c's phone rang, he fell behind by no more than 10 yards when she turned the corner and he heard the sound of a zat! "COLONEL CARTER!" he shouted, dropping his phone and causing Jacks heart to jump into his throat. Jack heard the discharge once again and his heart rate increased to an alarming speed. He shouted down the phone over and over, Michaels rushed in and in between shouts Jack filled him in, he rushed out to get the SGC and the Odyssey on the line a Jack continued to shout into his handset, hoping someone would hear him and pick up the phone Teal'c had dropped and answer his frantic questions.

It was a good two minutes before Teal'c came back to the phone, he had been zatted enough times over the years that it no longer made him unconscious, just stunned for a minute or so "O'Neill, I have failed you, Pete Shanahan has Colonel Carter"

Jack fell back into his chair a look of despair on his ashen face. He put his head into his hands and for the first time in years, tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Sir," Michaels burst into the room, and seeing the state his boss was in ground to a halt.

"He's got her" Came the soft voice, it sounded to the sergeant as if a ghost had whispered it, there was that much pain and sadness in the words that he could feel his own heart break.

"The Odyssey has them on the scanner sir, he can't disappear the same way this time, he would look odd walking through a shopping centre with an unconscious woman, and the Colonel is not likely to go quietly if she is awake, Sir," All Jack could think about was the threats that Pete/Ba'al had made, about making her a host and being physically intimate with her! He ground his teeth in his jaw so hard that the sergeant was afraid he may break them.

Less than 15 minutes later a dishevelled Sam appeared in a flash of bright light in Jacks office, it seemed that Pete/Ba'al had left her in the car when he went to open the door to a warehouse so he could drive in, and he travelled JUST far enough away from the vehicle that the shield stopping beaming didn't cover her.

Jack got up as quick as he could, with the cast still on his leg, and made it to her before the light of the beam had totally disappeared, he grabbed her and held her very tight.

"Jack! Let go! Jack! Need to breath!" he loosened his grip, but not by much, he buried his face in her shoulder, the tears running openly down his face and soaking her blouse, Michaels backed out of the office and started phoning people, Teal'c first, to let them know she was safe.

"Jack, Pete is a Goa'uld! We have to go get him, he told me that he was taking me to his base of operations, he must have meant that warehouse!" Jack did not seem to be listening to her, he just held her tight and focused on breathing in her scent, he knew his staff, the warehouse would be surrounded in no time, and so would Pete unless he gave them the slip once more. "Jack, are you listening to me? Jack?" Sam moved slightly and her leg brushed the cast on his. "Jack, what happened to your leg? Please love, talk to me. I'm OK, I'm here, please Jack"

He pulled himself together and limped back around his desk to his chair, dragging her with him and pulling her down on top of him as he seated himself.

"We know Pete is a Goa'uld, he has a Ba'al symbiote in him we think, and they will have the warehouse in a few minutes, and hopefully him too. We had him once, but he escaped,"

"You 'had him', what do you mean you HAD him? How long have you known Jack? Why didn't you tell me? What have you done to your leg?"

"Come on love, just sit down here and let me fill you in" It was a difficult conversation for both of them, he was trying to justify his actions, and she was hurt that she had not been told, it didn't matter that she had had other things to do, she had thought that they had put all the secrets behind them, she knew very well that it was not a question of trust, he trusted her, probably more than anyone else in the world. It was a question of protection, and while it may have thrilled her when he played alpha male, she was upset that he had known something like this for so long, and that he had not had her informed after the car crash. She felt a distance between them that had not been there before, and he felt it too.

His heart started to pound in his chest, this was how he had lost Sarah! God please don't let it happen again! He was trying to protect her, not drive her away! She saw the look of abject fear on his face, and realised what he was thinking… "Jack NO! You are not going to lose me over this, but we have to work it out. You cannot protect me like this, not when I have a job to do, and you especially can't keep me from your side just because it may be a bit dangerous. If you start like this you are going to end up stopping me going offworld, and I can't live in a cocoon! I won't! You didn't fall in love with me because I avoided danger, because I was safe and warm while you were risking your life! I was right there, next to you, we work as a team, not as a woman and her bodyguard"

He knew she was right. He had always been proud of how strong she was. How brave and clever, never stunned into immobility by their situation. He really should have told her before, he could have explained the trap to her, told her he was OK and guarded, that the danger of more than one possible Ba'al symbiote meant that she had to be on guard more. All the decisions he had made regarding the two of them over the last few weeks flew through his mind, and yet he could not honestly say that he would not do the same again, she was too precious to him! If he wanted to keep her, he had to allow her a freedom he didn't want her to have. She was watching him closely and saw him start to retreat from her. He was going to push her away, this time deliberately, give her freedom from HIM and his over protectiveness. She decided to act.

She got up and locked his door, and came back to him, she sat on his lap and started kissing him, "Don't you dare Jonathan O'Neill. You are NOT going to push me away. If you really love me you will learn, and change, as I will for you. I don't want to be free from you, I want to be stood shoulder to shoulder, or touching in any other way" she giggled a bit, moving her hands south, following the blood in his body, heading for one place. He groaned into her mouth as she nipped at his lips. He had no defence against this attack, and no matter what he had decided while he thought he was being rational, it all went out of the window as she got off his lap and knelt on the floor, unzipping his fly and popping the button on his uniform trousers.

Michaels tried the door to his bosses office, only to find it locked, he could hear them talking in low voices, and a slight giggle from the colonel. He looked at the report he had written on the pad, the capture of 5 men, Shanahan, a couple of FBI agents and one NID and someone unidentified as yet. He debated internally whether to use the intercom when he heard a low groan, and decided to wait a bit. He stood at attention exactly three feet from the door, making sure no one else got close enough to hear what was happening in the room.


End file.
